Barclays is still missing, though, and some people are having issues on the Underground.

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Apple Pay, which allows you to pay for stuff with your iPhone or Apple Watch, now supports HSBC and First Direct credit and debit cards in the UK.

The following banks and credit card providers now support Apple Pay: Natwest, Santander, Nationwide, RBS, Ulster Bank, HSBC, First Direct, MBNA, and American Express.

Barclays (and Barclaycard) are still missing, along with Halifax, Lloyds, TSB, Bank of Scotland, and M&S Bank. Lloyds wants to support Apple Pay "this autumn," but the other banks haven't yet provided any kind of timeline other than "soon."

So far, the roll out of Apple Pay in the UK has been mostly bug-free. I've been using it every day for the last couple of weeks without issue. There have been some niggles related to the specifics of which cards can and can't be added to Passbook on the iPhone or Apple Watch, however: for example, we can't add a Natwest Business card, but there's no guidance from Natwest on why this is the case or when it will be rectified. Some business cards from other financial institutions do work, however.

Further Reading

There has also been a few issues on Transport for London services, too. It turns out that, if you load a credit card onto an Apple device, each instance of the card (iPhone, Watch, and the original physical card) has a unique identifier—or at least as far as TfL is concerned, anyway. As a result, if you touch in with your iPhone, but then touch out with your Apple Watch or contactless card, TfL sees that as an incomplete journey, and you'll get fined accordingly. (You won't be eligible for daily or weekly capping, either).

For now, the only solution is to make sure you use the same payment method/device for your entire TfL experience. This means you'll need to keep your devices charged up, too: if your Watch runs out of battery during your journey, you'll be charged the full fare when you arrive at the other end.

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Sebastian Anthony
Sebastian is the editor of Ars Technica UK. He usually writes about low-level hardware, software, and transport, but it is emerging science and the future of technology that really get him excited. Emailsebastian@arstechnica.co.uk//Twitter@mrseb